AMERICA OUTDONE. A Yankee traveller was waiting for his train, when his curiosity was arouped by all the station staf! I --stationmaster, ticket - collectors, : porters, etc.-forming up into line ulong the platform and standing smartly at attention. An engine drawing one coach rushed through the station at GO miles nn hour, and the railway officials then re turned to their several duties. The traveller buttonholed, a porter. "Say was thore some eminent person tra-. veiling by that train ?" lie asked. ' There was that." replied the por ter. "Who?" "Well," said the man, "did you see that feller hang ing out of the window with tho notebook in his hand?" "I did." "That was the company's tailor measuring us for now uniforms." She was very literary, and he was not. He had spent a harrowing evening discussing authors of whom he knevs^ little, and their works of whkh he knew less. Presently tho maiden said, archly "Of course, you've read ' Romeo and J.uliet ?' " , He' floundered for a momen...

Skyscraper Made of Glass. The latent Vender in New York is it scaler! skyscraper wtoich, when completed, will be 78 per cent, glass, yet in the building there will be no windows that may be open ed, The entire twelve storeys will be tight as a drum, the glass walls being set in steel framework. There uill he plenty of ventilation, how ever, and abundance of fresh air the year round supplied at an even temperature hy a new ventilating system. In cold weather the fresh atmos phere sucked in from without will be heated ; when the summer comes it will be cooled. At all seasons of the year it will be free from di sease-breeding germs, being care fully purified. The' ventilating system ib unique in its thoroughness. Air is sucked in through a special duct on the second floor, because air at this altitude has been found to be less impure than at greater heights. The nir passes through "shower" cham bers, where the impurities are wash ed out of it after the manner of a rain-shower. At each ...

A Difficult Problem. Nowadays much more attention is paid to the personality and ; incli nations of prisoners than was the case a littlo while ago. That is why tho governor of Bog moor Prison wan not surprised when he was told that Convict 69 had refused to pick oakum. "What, are his reasons . (or refus ing ?" he asked tho. warder who had reported the case to him. "Says he wants to carry on with his trade, sir," answered the angry official. "And very natural, too. ' How often must I tell you that prison ers who have trades are not to waste their time picking oakum ? I am surprised at you wasting my time like tins, Smith. Of course,» the man must work at his trade, j See that it is done at once. That; will do !" j "Very good, sir!" answered the| warder. "But," he remarked, as he went out of the door, "Number sixty-nine is an aviator !" A newly-married young . woman; had a gas cooker fixed in her kit-! chcn. The gas company sent her a card of rules, with instructions to' study them we...

Viewing the Ocean-bed. f To the common objects of the seashore as .an amusement fo^ the summer holiday-maker will soon be added the uncommon objects of the bed of the ocean. For a price the curious will soon bo able to deacend through the waves to the cool floor of the sea, where slimy things with legs do crawl, and the little quick fishes flash by. The apparatus which is to make this possible, an ingenious contri vance called the Kioskhydro, it the invention of Dr. Iberti, for many years a professor of oceanography. Floating on the water, anchored perhaps to. the pierhead, is a large raft covered in* and elaborately furnished with seats and lounges, re freshment tables, and band. Descending from the centre of this is a tubular lift-well, with spiral staircase, opening out at the bot tom into a large chamber also fit ted with lounges and seats. Here, through thick lenses, the visitor will be able to watch the busy life of the sea. Electric lights of 12,000 candle-power will illumi n...

TRICKING THE THER MOMETER. THE WHOLE ART OF REEVING COOL DESCRIBED AND ANALYSED. '"Phew ! it's hot 1" Yes, it is I And so are you. You .pant, puff, perspire, and palpitate, und-if you belong to the fair sex possibly you powder I With.no trouble, but much tribu lation, you soar, in company with the. mounting: mercury, to the maxi mum of dilapidated d|Bcomfort, and then sink to the level, the low level, of beetroot beauty-when you needn't ! The first thing to do is to get in to condition. Body fat means body heat. That's good /or the winter, but bad for the summer. Train it off. In winter wrap yourself up hea vily, pile the clothing on, and go for a quick, hard walk-four miles out and home. You'll perspire profusely, and by the excess of sweat on your brow you'll know your lack of condition. Keep ,&amp;lt;oing-don't stop - and get a chill-and on your return, have a tepid bath at once. Three or four walks like that,-plus dumb-bell or other exercise, and you will soon get rid of Vou...

IN THE FACE OF MISFORTUNE. TROUBLES ONLY MAKE SOME PEOPLE LAUGH. While some people are depressed !>y the smallest troubles, nn:l almost hopelrsBly crushed by great ones, others see only the brightest st'le of everything, are ready to believe un der the severest misfortune that, af trr all, an even greater calamity might have happened to them, nn&amp;lt;i are able to get actual enjoyment out of the contemplation of the little troubles and catastrophes of daily life. It is all a matter of disposi tion. A costermongcr was pushing hi* barrow of fruit along Cheapside when a motor-'bus caught the barrow and upset the whole of the fruit into the roadway. The coster took off his cap scratched his head, and, as he saw his property rolling in all directions benoath the wheels of the crowded vehicles, simply remarked,, with a grin : "Well, there ain't no blessed word for it !" A man who was walking along t'.e bank of a canal accidently stumbled and fell in. Some persons who saw -the aff...

Use for Smoke Rings. The distance from which an aver age man can blow out a candle rarely exceeds three feet. If hois an adept. at blowing smoke rings, however, a. candle may bo extin guished at ?welve feet. Of course, the smoke ipn't necessary. An or dinary air ring will do, and has the added advantage' of being invis ible. Simply pucker tho mouth as you would to blow a smoke ring and expel air in a quick, sharp manner. It takes a good deal of practice to do it. An easier way to show the effect, if one is doubtful, is to place a sheet of cloth or canvas over the open side of a box otherwise closed, making a small, round hole in an other side. Then tap in a sharp manner on the canvas, and invisible air rings will be produced. If tho hole is pointed at a person's face foci them as tiny strike his face. Only a few trials \inre necessary to extinguish a candle at twelve fe£t. To render the rings visible, a smudge may be burned in the box# i or a small dish of ammonia may be placed side...

LEARNED HORSES ANIMALS 'THAT CAN TALK AND SPELL. MARVELS OF TRAINING." It is strange that South Africa has taken so small an interest in an amazing controversy which has separated the zoologists of tho Con tinent into two hostile" cainps, in one of which, stranger still, the Je suit Father Wasinann anil his arch opponent, the Agnostic, August Korel, are fighting side by side. All this is over the question' whe ther the feats of a few trained stallions are the true product of their mentality and education, or frauds, the result . of trickery, con scious, unconscious, or sub-conscious on the part of their trainer, a mer chant of. the flourishing manufacture ingHown' 'of'OEllienfeld, in the Prus sian Rhineland. Some 12 years back, an eccentric old gentleman of Berlin, von Osten by name, began j training a horse, which so profited, by his instructions thvt in a fow years "Clever Jack" (der kluge Hans) was able to count, to cipher, to read, ' nrid to recognise 'the dny of tho week. As hi...

THE FAR IW HANDLING SOIL FOR PRODUO- 1 TION. EXTENT OP PLANT-ROOT SYS TEMS AND THEIR GROWTH. If one pulls up a wheat plant as it ia approaching maturity he finds at tached to the crown of the plant a number of roots of various sizes only a few inches in length. Unless he is a skilled botanist, he concludes that these are all the roots the plant has, and that through these the plant derives its soil nourishment' Accord ingly he comes to the conclusion that wheat is a shallow-rooted plant. TRUNK LINES, NOT FEEDING ROOTLETS. These roots, however, furnish the plant no part of its nourishment; they are merely the .trunk lines which receive the plant nourishment from the feeding rootlets and take it to the growing tissues of the plants ; they are merely carriers, not gather ers, of plant food. The feeding root lets, by means of which the plant gathers its soil nourishment, were broken off and left in the soil when the plant was lifted. Since the plant derives its nourishment from the soil...

LIMIT OF COUHTESY. Japan's . new Prime ' Minister, Count Okumn* has a. wooden leg. It replaces a limb which was blown off by the bomb of a political as sassin. In conncctikm with that outrage, a story is tiold which goes far to support the &amp;lt;claim that is made for Okuma that he is the best mannered man in Japan. After the explosion, which had killed his ser vants and horses, besides shattering his leg, lie was lying: in 'his office in an agony of pnfin, yet he was able to say smilingjly to a foreign statesman who was taking leave of him,; ''Excuse me, Bir, for my im politeness in not seeing you to the door." "Pall Mall CSazette." Providing its buikVc accepts cer tain. conditions, the British War Offico will put any atrfjplane.through the military acceptance tost. v

PATTER ARTISTS STILL AT CROSS PURPOSES. Where aro you going to spend your holiday this summer 7 No holiday lor toe. I m saving all my monoy for a machine. Sewing or killing 7 Neither." I'm going to buy a dicta graph. What is a dictagraph 7 A dictagraph is a wonderful instru ment. With such an instrument, no mattor where you arc, you enn hear what your wife' says about you be hind your back. Oh, it's an instrument of torture 7 It's a great invention.. With a dic tagraph you can find out' just who your friends are. All you have to do I is to go and visit the pisoplo you know,stick it under the carpet or be hind. the piano, and when you go home you can sit in your parlour, and hear everything they say about 5 OU. But if YOU did that pretty., soon yon wouldn't have any friends. Not at all. You don't need to let them know that you know what they think 0t you. . ? But what pleasure is there in be ing a dlctagrapher 7 I don't see any fun in going to a party and then coming home- nnd listen...

WENT ONE KETTEU. Riggs : "I've been,most unfortu nate to-day." . . Biggs : "How so ?" Biggs : "Well, I saw* a piece of bread-and-jam in the road, and poked it with my walking-stick. A minute later I was arrested for disturbing the peace." | JJiggs : "Really | What hard luck! A friend of mine had a very simi-1 lnr experience quite recently. He; saw a bad penny lyinjg in the road, and walked past it. . Immediately afterwards he waA arreted for pass-1 ing bad money."

THE DAIRY. WEALTH IN A GOOD HERD. In securing a dairy herd too few' . people realise how easy it is to .ac-j I cumulate wealth by building up a j I herd that represents the highcBb pos sible quality in the cows. A dairy, herd may become merely, the means | of affording a living, if indeed not a i hard, drudging life, or it may be a veritable savings hank, accumula ting compound interest. I Only ten years ago the University ! of Missouri purchased four registered Holstein cows and a bull for £94. At the present time the descendants from this purchase number 35 head, some of which could not be purchas ed for £200 and the entire lot is J valued at over £2,000. In addition to ! this increased value, bulls have been 1 fold for breeding purposes that leaves a substantial margin to the credit of the sales qccount after al lowing for the occasional purchase .f a new bull for use in the herd. One thousand dollars a year is what this original investment of £94 returned on increasing value alo...

. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ODD. The Eiffel Tower has just cele brated its twenty-fifth . birthday. The great structure, which is over 900ft. high, has now become quite a part of Paris, but when it aw first erectcd there was a storm'of protests, and such well-known names in tho world ctf art as Gounod, Lcconte do Lisle, Ooppec, . Borinat, and Macpaussant signed a petition against it. The tower is extraordinary light for its size, and for many years the belief Weus persistent that one fine morning it would bo found levelled to the ground. Tho result is that tho Champ do Mars district of Paris has only just been really lnid out and* built on. People have forgotten their fears now, and. are ready to live in tho shadow of tho Eiffel Tower. A prominent motor-car manufac turer had tho idea of naming his cars after flowers. Said ho to a.' friend : "I think of calling that new^car over there," pointing, to a huge red limousine, "the Crimson Ramble." But his friend, who had heen out in the indicated...

Selecting a Maid of Honour. HOW THE POST IS FILLED. Bating "back to the «nd °f «"» 'sixteenth century, when .>am&amp;lt;» ? i | appointed four . "damsels of clear ) birth and good breoding " to tonn on his Consort, under tho atrec-. tin of a "dowager of discretion a personage often called "the Mother I o/ the Maids," a post long »lnco abolished-tho position of Maid o Honour is a much-coveted one. in deed. tho Hon. fiybil Cadogan, ap pointed a Maid of Honour bV Q"c0£ Mary, was one of over 100 girls who were hopefully waiting to e chosen to fill the vacancy. The privileges and advantag tached to the position are monv, but a Maid of Honour roust of ne cessity bo an exceedingly plished young woman. In « « place she must be a grand-daughter of .a peer,, if not nearer in blood, for, unless some special PTT1?" is made, tho office cannot 1* held by anyone below that rank Secondly she must be » good !i"8uist> only because of the foreigners she v.ili mo,t at Court, but because she ....

Tallest Building in the World. There has been recently completed in New York a skyscraper which enn claim the distinction of being the tallest habitable edificc on the face of the globe, towering 785ft. above the pavement, and boasting of some fifty-seven storeys, the erec tion of which hns demanded all the skill and daring of the builder and engineer. When it is stated that this new structure has de-i mantled an expenditure of £2,400, 000, and is virtually a town in it self, it will be seen that it is no ordinary building. We get some idea of the wonders of this remarkable edifice when it is stated that it 19 more than i twico the height of St. Paul's Ca thedral, and some 200ft. higher than the Great Pyramid of Cheops. London's tallest building, Queen Anne's Mansions, in Westminster, is a pigmy compared to it, being but (i beggarly 180ft. And the Wool worth building, the name by which the new structure is known, is greater than it looks, its founda tions going down to a depth, of 1...

(Copyrirht.) CONVICT DAYS. * * » ) VIVID AND REALISTIC £ t PICTURES OF THE PAST, t » » » The Oath of Edward Hyde. (Complete in 2 Parts.) PAW TWO. ~ f !«nrr before an uncon the injured -Vict i, -^o^tomed rr.rtK From the elevated P«iU"n ° ev^, Hyde thought of the homo he had \ln torn from ud the loved ones ho would never see again. The sight of the heaving ocean also raised in-the sailor's heart a great long ing for. its liberty and tree We. On the seventh night after the accident Tyson sat moodily gazing 1 into the dying emhers of the Tire His companion lay «»">*?, aPPa"ntl> aslesp, and tumultuous thoughts ?urged through U» mind of the sea man. Ot what avail was It to remain with Hyde 7 It would be a useless sacrifice, the Temptor whis pered. There was nothing ho could do to aid him further. Both would die unless he toot a sensible view and looked to his own safety. As he thus mused, half-uncon scious of his surroundings, ho mut tered his thoughts audibly. * wrtct 'exclamation ...

j( Copyright.) CONVICT DAYS. THE HUTKEEPER'S DAUGHTER. A TALH BY JOHN BATMAN. (ComploU in Three Farts.) PART ONE. Late in the nftcrnoon of the 6th August, . 1823, a horseman'was slow ly making his way along the bush road between the Taniar Settlement and George Town, Van Pieman's Land, the military station neur the mouth ot the river. The weather was stormy and un usually inclement even for that time of the year. F'icrcc rain squalls from tho north struck horse and man, and at times the rider had difficulty in getting the animal to proceed. The narrow track in places was almost impassable, and as darkness gathered the horseman came to an abrupt halt. "J had better make for old Black burn'* hut," he spoke, as if ad dressing his mount. "It's ten mil?* to tho station, and Brady's Creek will bo in flood." -Without delay he pulled on the bridle, and tho horse, only too will ing to turn its back on the sleety blast, quickly trotted back a few hundred yards to where a path scarce wide enou...

KITCHEN WRINKLES. If anything on which paraffin has buen spilled-'hands included-iH rub- . bed with raw potato, the smell will immediately disappear. . New potatoes should be placcd in boiling water to which salt and a little milk have btVn added. The millc prevents 'thorn . from turning black. The popular cabbnge is useful for drawing and demising a gathered finger or poisoned hand. Take a cabbage leaf, roll it* out with a bottle until the juice comes, and tie it on the affected part. Salt will remove black beetles. Put plenty of salt where the" beetles frequent, and keep it there for a week. Do not leave any water where the insects go. When they eat the salt it will dry up their bodies. To remove the smell of fish or cabbage from a saucepan, burn a piece of brown paper on the fire and turn the saucepan dbwn over the burning paper. This will re move all odour, whatever it is, in a few seconds. A reinlorced-cottcrotc building, 300 feet bigb, containing a spiral drive way for automob...